A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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Hours later, after the mall had closed down for the night, the group was back on the mall roof, waiting for Erica to crawl through the vents to open the door below them. The sun had set half an hour before, Ryan making sure everything Erica could possibly need was in the bright pink backpack she would be taking with her into the vents. She had prepared for everything, even putting a bag of gummy worms in the small pocket in the front of the backpack. It still didn't make her feel any better about sending the ten year old Sinclair into a secret Russian room.
On her left side, Robin lifted Dustin's radio to her lips, "Erica, do you copy?"
"Mmhmm, I copy." Erica's voice came through, just a little muffled. "You nerds in position or what?"
On Ryan's other side, Steve rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he stared up at the night sky. Despite how anxious she was, Ryan couldn't help but laugh quietly.
"Yeah, we're in position." Robin said with an eye roll of her own. "It's all quiet here so you've got the green light."
"Green light. Roger that." Ryan smiled slightly at Erica's mission slang. Someone was a secret nerd, she knew it. "Commence Operation Child Endangerment."
Robin narrowed her eyes, even though Erica couldn't see her, "Can we maybe not call it that?"
"See you on the other side, nerds."
Ryan reached over, taking the radio from Robin's hands to speak into it, "Be careful. If you see anything or anyone in that room—"
"I know mom." Erica said when she didn't finish her words. She could practically hear the eye roll. "Abort mission."
"Watch it, Little Sinclair." Ryan warned, just a tad amused. "Free ice cream is on the line."
"Yeah, yeah."
Ryan handed the radio back to Robin, tapping the side of the roof in an anxious beat. Like they had thought, there was no Russian guard at the door, but that didn't mean there wasn't any inside the room. She really didn't like the idea of Erica going in alone, not at all.
Steve took her hand in his, lacing his fingers through hers, "Hey, she's gonna be fine."
She glanced down at their hands, shifting her gaze to his free hand, his fingers quietly dancing on the edge of the roof just as anxiously as she had been before. "Really?" He stopped moving his hand, dropping it down to his side with a sheepish grin. "You're nervous about this too."
"A little, yeah," He admitted. "But she'll be fine."
Axel leaned forward on the edge to see past Robin with a smirk, "She called you mom."
